


Into the Woods

by LadyKnightSkye



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Cat!Dimitri, Fantasy AU, Gen, centaur!Claude, winged!Edelgard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 15:50:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20212318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKnightSkye/pseuds/LadyKnightSkye
Summary: Everyone knows that you don't go into the woods.





	Into the Woods

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Eaglefairy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eaglefairy/gifts).

> This ended up coming out more like a fairy tale than I really meant, but I decided to keep it that way.

Everyone knew that you didn’t go into the woods. There were of course the usual beasties to worry over, but for the sleepy little village of Garreg Mach, there was so much more. Nestled at the foot of a mountain tall, they were surrounded by the scars of a magical battle gone wrong, or so the elders said. Clans of marauding creatures hunted the woods and meadows that hugged the little village like a well-worn coat, and only one lonely road warded by saintly relics led to the outside world. The people avoided the woods, only going to the very edges, and always under heavy guard. Byleth Eisner only remembered vaguely going to the edge once when she was very small. Her father had still been alive, and he’d been guarding a group of people gathering firewood. She remembered that day not because it was the last time her father had cuddled her close but because of the three sets of eyes she’d seen peering out of the forest at her.

  
“Byleth!”

  
The young woman turned, and smiled. “Good day Alois.”

  
Her father’s young protege waved jovially. “Lady Rhea would like to see you in the village square.”

  
She nodded, and picked up her needle work. Ever since her father died she had been a ward of the village, first living with Seteth and little Flayn, and then for a time with Gilbert and his family. On her sixteenth birthday she’d finally gone back to her family’s little cottage by the woods. Lady Rhea had been against the move, but never would reveal why. As she moved into the village commons, she saw the venerable lady standing ramrod straight, glaring at an unfamiliar man.

  
“Lady Rhea?” she called out hesitantly.

  
The older woman turned to her and gave her a beatific smile. “Ah, there you are.” She glanced back at the man. “Lord Thales, this is my ward, Byleth. If you would excuse me, I need to have a word with her.”

  
The man was pale, death pale. He looked Byleth over like she was a prized cow. “Of course, take your time.”

  
Rhea took Byleth’s arm and pulled the girl away, back towards the church. “Who is he?” Byleth asked quietly.

  
“He is the lord of the lands that our little road leads to. He has come looking for a girl he’s heard about.” Her eyes said more than her mouth.

  
Byleth froze, trying not to look down at the back of her left hand. From birth she had been marked with a Crest, a powerful one. No one knew much about Jeralt Eisner before he’d come to their little village in the dead of the night, smelling of woodsmoke and death, but that Crest had marked his hand as well. “Is he looking for the Crest of Flames?”

  
“Apparently, it makes you the granddaughter of the previous king of all our lands.” Rhea glanced over to where Lord Thales was watching them closely. “Jeralt Eisner was not your father’s name.”

  
The girl froze. “What does Lord Thales want with me then?”

  
“Your father was the previous king’s by-blow,” Rhea explained, “And the current king’s half-brother. The king has decreed that you must stay unwed, and Lord Thales is to keep an eye on you.”

  
“I don’t want to leave,” Byleth said quickly.

  
Rhea nodded, and looked over at the lord. “Don’t worry, I can make a case to keep you here. I just needed to know your heart, dear child.”

  
“Thank you. May I go back to my home?”

  
“Yes, but take a round about route. Don’t go straight there,” Rhea answered as she turned.

  
Byleth understood, and quickly hurried off into the opposite direction. Taking a risk, she skimmed the edge of the forest. When she was finally out of sight of Lord Thales, she sighed. “The granddaughter of a king. Father, what did you get me into?”

  
A rustle to her left caused Byleth to freeze. Slowly, carefully, she looked over, and startled badly when a flash of red and black slid into a nearby bush. “Who’s there?” she asked, and then cursed her inanity.

  
The part of her that had been raised on tales of the treacherous beasts of the woods told her to run, but a small sound got her to stay. It was the hitch of breath, the sound of someone in pain. Biting her lip, she eased towards the bush. “Hello?”

  
“Go away,” a feminine voice demanded.

  
“Oh!” she cried, jumping back a step. “Oh, I . . . Are you hurt?”

  
“I said go away human!” The bush rattled, but then another yelp of pain sounded.

  
“You are hurt,” Byleth said, and finally got up the courage to go to the bush. “I just want to -“

  
No one had ever truly described the creatures that were supposed to inhabit the woods, so Byleth was completely unprepared for what she saw. It was a girl, probably around the same age as Byleth, but two things kept her from being human. One was the set of curling horns that rose from her head and almost met in front of her forehead. The other was the set of black feathered wings rising from her back. One of them was folded against her side, but the other was held aloft, the way Byleth had seen one of Frank the Gatekeeper’s chickens hold hers when she had broken it.

  
“Go away,” the girl hissed again, white-blonde hair falling into her face. Her blue eyes snapped with anger and fear.

  
“No, you’re hurt.” Byleth reached out. “Let me help you.”

  
The girl snorted, but then grimaced. She was wearing a strange suit of red cloth and golden buttons. Her boots were black as well, but looked like they were made of flexible wrappings rather than thick, sturdy leather. “I don’t need your help.”

  
“From here it looks like you do.”

  
The two young women eyed each other for a long time. Then, the girl in the bush finally took Byleth’s hand. Gingerly, she pulled the prone girl up, and helped her stand. “Is anything other than your wing hurt?”

  
The other girl nodded. “I may have twisted my ankle as well.”

  
“Okay, let’s get to my cottage. I can help you there.” Byleth drew the girl’s arm around her shoulder. “My name is Byleth.”

  
“Edelgard,” the other girl answered.

  
“Okay, Edelgard, it’s not much further.”

  
The two limped along, until Edelgard yanked on Byleth’s arm. “Stop!” she hissed.

  
Byleth did as she was bid, and gave the other girl a confused look. Edelgard put a finger to her lips, and then pointed ahead. Byleth peered into the gloom, and saw another girl eyeing her cottage. This girl looked to be a few years older, with dark orange hair and markings around her eyes that did not look friendly. The girl didn’t look their way, but instead headed off back towards the village. They stayed frozen until she was out of the woods completely. “That’s the girl that shot at me,” Edelgard said. “I fell trying to avoid her arrows.”

  
“I’ve never seen her before,” Byleth said. “She must be part of Lord Thales’s entourage.”

  
Edelgard snarled. “I hate that man. He hunts my kind mindlessly.”

  
“And what do you call your kind?” Byleth asked as they started walking again.

  
“We call ourselves Adrestians. You may call us Black Eagles.”

  
“Black Eagles,” Byleth repeated. “Come on, my cottage is right there.”

  
They approached the edge of the woods. “I don’t see anyone -“

  
“Psst!”

  
Both girls whipped around to look to their left. Peeking out from a tree was what looked all the world to Byleth like the weirdest cat she’d ever seen. The creature had a cat-like facial shape, but the eyes were more like a human’s, and the muzzle was nearly non-existent. “Dimitri,” Edelgard hissed. “You scared us.”

  
The creature jumped down. He wore leather armor in dark brown or black, and no shoes on his strangely shaped feet. His fur was a yellowish color, and his eyes bright blue. A ruff of fur formed a mane that began on the top of his head and crowned his shoulders. “Edelgard, we have to go. Thales and his cronies are in this village.”

  
“She hurt herself,” Byleth replied before Edelgard could say a word.

  
Dimitri stared at her, his eyes like ice. “Stop it, Dimitri,” Edelgard said. “She’s helping me.”

  
His mouth curled, but he nodded. “Are you taking her into the village?” he asked Byleth.

  
“Just to my cottage. It’s right there,” she answered, pointing to the building at the edge of the forest. “I have some medical supplies there. We need to wrap her ankle and her wing.”

  
He growled. “I don’t like it.”

  
“Well, you know, I don’t think we have a choice.”

  
Byleth screamed. She hated to admit it, but she screamed at the voice coming right behind her, and right over her head. “Whoa! It’s okay!”

  
“Good job, Claude.” Edelgard sighed. “It’s alright, Byleth. He’s a friend.”

  
The one called Claude finally trotted around the two women, as Byleth tried to calm her racing heart. From the waist up, he was rather a normal, shirtless lad with oak brown skin and grass green eyes. One just had to get over the fact that from the waist down he had the body of deer, and a small set of antlers curled up from his forehead. “My apologies, fair lady,” Claude said with a friendly smile. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  
“Your apology is accepted.” She nodded to her house. “We need to hurry.”

  
“I’ll go first,” Dmitri said. “Then you and Edelgard come. Claude, bring up the rear.”

  
Carefully, the foursome made their way out of the woods and into Byleth’s cottage. Quickly, Byleth saw to Edelgard’s injuries. “There. That should hold you.”

  
“We can get her back to her people,” Dimitri said.

  
Claude had had an awkward time getting in the house, but he seemed to be enjoying exploring the place. “We just have to be careful of Thales.”

  
“Why?”

  
The three shared a look. It was Edelgard who answered. “Thales wishes to take over these lands. He wants to not just rule the humans, but the Adrestians, the Faerghish, and the Perytons as well.” She gestured to Claude and Dimitri. “We were keeping an eye on him when Kronya - the other girl in the woods - shot at me.”

  
Byleth nodded, and glanced down at her hand. Dimitri followed her eyes, and his widened. “The Crest of Flames!”

  
“Yes,” she said, “I just found out today what that even means.”

  
The three creatures shared a look. “Long ago,” Claude said softly, “Our peoples agreed that we would respect the power of the Crest of Flames. It’s how the king of this land keeps his throne.”

“I don’t think Thales is here on your king’s business,” Dimitri added. “He has lusted after power for quite a while.”

  
“But . . . he told Lady Rhea that the king just wanted to find . . .” She stopped.

  
“Funny that he would come looking for you now,” Claude said with a sly look in his eye. “When the current king is in failing health and has no heirs.”

  
“We didn’t know,” she murmured. “Do you think Thales will try to use me?”

  
“You’re young, of marriageable age I presume?” Dimitri pressed.

  
“I’m eighteen.”

  
Edelgard grimaced. “Oh, most definitely. Right now you are the only person in the land that has a rightful claim to the throne.”

  
“Whoever marries you becomes king,” Claude added.

  
Byleth took a deep breath. “He said that the king decreed that I should stay unwed.”

  
“I highly doubt that,” Edelgard said. “My father’s ambassador to the capital says that the king has only asked for the man known as Jeralt de Gualle or any of his issue to be found.”

  
“De Gualle,” she murmured. “He went by Jeralt Eisner here.”

  
The three young creatures shared a look. Edelgard reached out and took her hand. “Our families’s word is our bond. We pledged long ago to respect and protect the Crest of Flames. We will continue to do so. We will return to our fathers and mothers and tell them of you and of Thales’s plots.”

  
“Just call for us and we will come,” Dimitri added.

  
Claude grinned. “If all else fails, just run into the woods.”

  
“Thank you,” she said, placing her hand on top of Edelgard’s. Dimitri laid his hand on top of hers, and Claude on top of his.

  
“Together we fight,” Edelgard said, “together we live.”

  
“Together we fight,” Dimitri and Claude echoed, “Together we live.”

  
“Together we fight, together we live,” Byleth whispered. 

* * *

Lord Thales left that afternoon, and days turned to weeks, and weeks to months. Byleth’s three new friends left as well, but she knew that they were never far. Sometimes she saw shadows flying high above, or heard the snap of branches in the woods outside her home. Every so often, she would see a rack of antlers, and know her friends were near. Five years came and went in peace.

  
And then he came again.

  
“Byleth! Byleth!”

  
The young woman had been working in her garden, and looked up to see Flayn running full bore towards her. The younger girl’s face was wreathed in panic. “Lady Rhea says to run!”

  
“I don’t think so.”

  
Whirling back around, she came face to face with the orange-haired woman. Kronya. “Lord Thales has a need of you.”

  
Without thought, Byleth swung her hoe, and managed to surprise the other woman. Kronya jumped back while she kicked up her skirts and ran. She vaulted her garden fence, and then grabbed Flayn’s hand as they bolted for the village green. The scene that greeted them was chaotic. Lady Rhea had gathered the defenders of the village, but Thales had brought black knights atop black horses, and Byleth could tell that the defenders were not going to last long. Thales himself sat atop a black destrier, and he met her eyes with an evil smile.

  
However, she was not afraid. “Black Eagles!”

  
Thales’s smile fell.

  
“Blue Lions!”

  
He roared, “Get her!”

  
“Golden Deer!”

  
The thunder of hooves was horrendous, but Byleth stood her ground. A sound began to carry through the air, over the screams of people and cries of horses. The battle slowed, then stopped as man and beast froze in fear. The sound was an eagle’s shriek, a lion’s roar, a deer’s trumpet, but magnified by a hundred fold. Thales’s face turned into a snarl as eight shadows fell from the sky.

  
Byleth smiled as Edelgard rose up from her landing crouch, spreading her immense black wings in front of the two women. Arrows flew from one side of the village as snarls rose from the other. Claude burst from the trees to their right, leading a charge of seven golden Peryton, bows ready and waiting to fire. Dimitri stalked out from the forest flanked by seven Faerghish warriors dressed in leather armor. The two males flanked Edelgard, their weapons trained on Thales. “Leave,” Edelgard thundered.

  
Thales snarled, “The girl will be mine.”

  
“We protect the Crest of Flames,” Dimitri replied, “And we will rend asunder any who threaten it.”

  
“So, you might want to leave.” Claude nocked his bow. “You have attacked her sanctuary, and we won’t stand for that.”

  
The stand off lasted for long, agonizing moments. Finally, Thales gestured for his knights to fall back. “I will return.”

  
“No you won’t,” Byleth announced, causing all eyes to go to her. “Because I won’t be here.”

  
“Byleth -“ Lady Rhea began.

  
The young woman shook her head, and turned to the woods. She walked, flanked by the Lord of the Faerghish and the Lord of the Peryton, while the Lady of the Adrestians glared at Thales. Realizing what the young woman was doing, Thales kicked his horse forward. Before anyone could do anything, one of the Peryton raised his bow and left fly an arrow. The lord was dead before he hit the ground, before the young woman had disappeared into the forest. 

* * *

In the years that followed for the village of Garreg Mach, life returned to peaceful calm. They had word that the king had recovered from his illness enough to have two children, both who bore the Crest of Flames. A young lord called Jeritza took over Thales’s land, and no one ever spoke of that fateful day or that fateful girl ever again.

  
But they always left gifts out by the forest, gifts that were gone in the morning. Sometimes they would see the flash of eyes in the trees, and see the young woman out in the meadows in the company of the Black Eagles or the Golden Deer or the Blue Lions. Every so often gifts for the villagers would be left in the village green, all addressed to Lady Rhea and the people of Garreg Mach.

  
Everyone knows that you don’t go into the woods, but if you do, just call for Byleth. She’ll lead you home.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
